scholarly journals New Ancient Egyptian Human Mummies from the Valley of the Kings, Luxor: Anthropological, Radiological, and Egyptological Investigations

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Rühli ◽  
Salima Ikram ◽  
Susanne Bickel

The Valley of the Kings (arab.Wadi al Muluk; KV) situated on the West Bank near Luxor (Egypt) was the site for royal and elite burials during the New Kingdom (ca. 1500–1100 BC), with many tombs being reused in subsequent periods. In 2009, the scientific project “The University of Basel Kings’ Valley Project” was launched. The main purpose of this transdisciplinary project is the clearance and documentation of nonroyal tombs in the surrounding of the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmosis III (ca. 1479–1424 BC; KV 34). This paper reports on newly discovered ancient Egyptian human mummified remains originating from the field seasons 2010–2012. Besides macroscopic assessments, the remains were conventionally X-rayed by a portable X-ray unitin situinside KV 31. These image data serve as basis for individual sex and age determination and for the study of probable pathologies and embalming techniques. A total of five human individuals have been examined so far and set into an Egyptological context. This project highlights the importance of ongoing excavation and science efforts even in well-studied areas of Egypt such as the Kings’ Valley.

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Buthainah Abdah ◽  
Issam A. Al-Khatib ◽  
Abdelhaleem I. Khader

Water bottling industry has negative environmental impacts due to exploitation and possible pollution of water resources and due to solid waste problems related to the use of plastic bottles. To mitigate these impacts, it is important to study the link between consuming bottled drinking water and the perception of its quality. The objective of the study is to assess the perception of Birzeit University students’ of the bottled water marketed in the West Bank and its impact on the humans and the environment. Universities play an important role in providing awareness about environmental issues and sustainability, and university students are thought to be more environmentally conscious about these issues. A quantitative survey was used to analyze the behaviors and perceptions of Birzeit University students. The sample size was 375 students, distributed according to the college, gender, and the academic year at the university. The results show that the factors that affect the perception of the students are mainly the educational year at the university, the income, the family size, and the community type.


2001 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Hulin

AbstractIn Autumn 2000, the University of Liverpool continued its researches into the Ramesses II fortress at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham, some 25 km west of Marsa Matruh. During this season, the area around the wadis that run towards Ras Abu Laho, 3 km to the west of Umm el-Rakham, was explored. Particular attention was paid to the spurs and knolls that presented a commanding view of the wadi and surrounding area or the coast, in the hope of finding possible New Kingdom patrol routes in association with the fort.This paper presents more evidence of local ceramic manufacture activity in the region. Two local fabrics, Marmaric fabrics 1 and 2, are identified and their shapes and distribution are discussed. They are dated to the New Kingdom, more or less contemporary with the fortress at Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham, since they occur with Nile valley fabrics. It is suggested that they were either made by the local Libyan population, or by the occupants of the fortress for their own use.The decorative corpus of another local fabric, Shell Tempered ware, is also briefly sketched, and its post-New Kingdom date reconfirmed.


Heritage ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 2028-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fauzia Albertin ◽  
Matteo Bettuzzi ◽  
Rosa Brancaccio ◽  
Maria Pia Morigi ◽  
Franco Casali

X-ray Computed Tomography (X-ray CT) is a sophisticated non-destructive imaging technique to investigate structures and materials of complex objects, and its application can answer many conservation and restoration questions. However, for Cultural Heritage investigations, medical CT scanners are not optimized for many case-studies: These instruments are designed for the human body, are not flexible and are difficult to use in situ. To overcome these limitations and to safely investigate works of art on site—in a restoration laboratory or in a museum—the X-ray Tomography Laboratory of the University of Bologna designed several CT systems. Here we present two of these facilities and the results of important measurement campaigns performed in situ. The first instrument, light and flexible, is designed to investigate medium-size objects with a resolution of a few tens of microns and was used for the CT analysis of several Japanese theater masks belonging to the collection of the “L. Pigorini” Museum (Rome). The second is designed to analyze larger objects, up to 200 cm and was used to investigate the collection of the so-called “Statue Vestite” (devotional dressed statues) of the Diocesan Museum of Massa.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Muhammad Hallaj

Muhammad Hallaj, a political scientist specializing in Palestinian affairs and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was born in Qalqilya, Palestine, in 1932. After earning his doctorate from the University of Florida in 1966, he taught at Florida's Jacksonville University and then at the University of Jordan in Amman. Hallaj returned to the West Bank in 1975, where he served as dean of social sciences and later as academic vice president of Birzeit University before becoming the first director of the Council for Higher Education in the West Bank and Gaza. While taking a leave to go to Harvard University as a visiting scholar in 1983, Hallaj was denied a visa to return to the West Bank. Among the positions he has held since then have been editor of Palestine Perspectives (1983––1991), member (and subsequent head) of the Palestinian delegation on Refugees to themultilateral peace talks following the Madrid conference (1991––1993), and executive director of the Palestine Center and the Jerusalem Fund. At the request of JPS, Dr. Hallaj shared his memories of the 1948 war and its aftermath, which he experienced as a high school student in Jaffa, and then in Qalqilya and Tulkarm.


2017 ◽  
Vol 178 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adnan Lahham ◽  
Ahlam Issa ◽  
Hussein ALMasri

Heritage ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
Giovanni Buccolieri ◽  
Alfredo Castellano ◽  
Vito Nicola Iacobelli ◽  
Giorgio Giuseppe Carbone ◽  
Antonio Serra ◽  
...  

This paper reports the analyses carried out on the medieval copper alloy door (1111–1118 AD) of the mausoleum of Boemondo d’Altavilla in Canosa di Puglia (Southern Italy). The studied door is the smallest medieval bronze door extant in Italy and, unlike the other Byzantine doors, was most probably made in Canosa di Puglia and not in Constantinople. Analyses were performed to assess the chemical composition of the alloy patinas using a portable energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) instrument designed at the University of Salento. The experimental results suggested that the two door leaves have the same chemical composition, even if they appear different in both style and size. Furthermore, the alloy used for the door is different from the other previously-analyzed Byzantine bronze doors. The obtained results can be used in the future to compare the chemical composition of other Byzantine doors in order to better understand the manufacture of these precious artifacts.


Author(s):  
R. E. Herfert

Studies of the nature of a surface, either metallic or nonmetallic, in the past, have been limited to the instrumentation available for these measurements. In the past, optical microscopy, replica transmission electron microscopy, electron or X-ray diffraction and optical or X-ray spectroscopy have provided the means of surface characterization. Actually, some of these techniques are not purely surface; the depth of penetration may be a few thousands of an inch. Within the last five years, instrumentation has been made available which now makes it practical for use to study the outer few 100A of layers and characterize it completely from a chemical, physical, and crystallographic standpoint. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) provides a means of viewing the surface of a material in situ to magnifications as high as 250,000X.


Author(s):  
S. Edith Taylor ◽  
Patrick Echlin ◽  
May McKoon ◽  
Thomas L. Hayes

Low temperature x-ray microanalysis (LTXM) of solid biological materials has been documented for Lemna minor L. root tips. This discussion will be limited to a demonstration of LTXM for measuring relative elemental distributions of P,S,Cl and K species within whole cells of tobacco leaves.Mature Wisconsin-38 tobacco was grown in the greenhouse at the University of California, Berkeley and picked daily from the mid-stalk position (leaf #9). The tissue was excised from the right of the mid rib and rapidly frozen in liquid nitrogen slush. It was then placed into an Amray biochamber and maintained at 103K. Fracture faces of the tissue were prepared and carbon-coated in the biochamber. The prepared sample was transferred from the biochamber to the Amray 1000A SEM equipped with a cold stage to maintain low temperatures at 103K. Analyses were performed using a tungsten source with accelerating voltages of 17.5 to 20 KV and beam currents from 1-2nA.


Author(s):  
K.K. Soni ◽  
D.B. Williams ◽  
J.M. Chabala ◽  
R. Levi-Setti ◽  
D.E. Newbury

In contrast to the inability of x-ray microanalysis to detect Li, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) generates a very strong Li+ signal. The latter’s potential was recently exploited by Williams et al. in the study of binary Al-Li alloys. The present study of Al-Li-Cu was done using the high resolution scanning ion microprobe (SIM) at the University of Chicago (UC). The UC SIM employs a 40 keV, ∼70 nm diameter Ga+ probe extracted from a liquid Ga source, which is scanned over areas smaller than 160×160 μm2 using a 512×512 raster. During this experiment, the sample was held at 2 × 10-8 torr.In the Al-Li-Cu system, two phases of major importance are T1 and T2, with nominal compositions of Al2LiCu and Al6Li3Cu respectively. In commercial alloys, T1 develops a plate-like structure with a thickness <∼2 nm and is therefore inaccessible to conventional microanalytical techniques. T2 is the equilibrium phase with apparent icosahedral symmetry and its presence is undesirable in industrial alloys.


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